


Rain Echoes

by ahdachi



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Doyoung - Freeform, Fluff, I love JaeDo, Jaehyun - Freeform, M/M, nct - Freeform, sorry - Freeform, this is my first one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 07:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7925827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahdachi/pseuds/ahdachi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all started under an umbrella.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rain Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first english shot, sorry if you look any mistake.  
> Every comment is constructive for me.  
> Please enjoy.  
> 

The sound of water under his shoes echoed like a perfect symphony on every step; leafs were flying all over the place when a wind burst knocked the tree branches, sending a shivering feeling down his spine, the day was freaking cold and they even weren’t on winter yet. But even with the typical rainy weather on autumn, his day was going pretty much better now, it was his preferred season, so the exhausting classes and the hardworking as a tutor started to disappear the moment he put one foot on the street. His umbrella was soaking, it started to rain harder and the people on the street without one were running frenetically to hide inside a cafeteria or at some convenience store. He, on the other hand, slowed his pace, enjoying the water drops falling from the corners of the umbrella to his shoes and his shoulders, not even worrying to look in front of him, he knew his way home like the palm of his hand, he didn’t had to cross any street, so it didn’t care if he walked all the way looking at the wet floor counting every step, just moving a little to the side if he heard the water echoes of someone beside him running away from the storm.

On his three years living there, he hadn’t crashed with no one on his path, but a minute later on that thought, just by turning around in the corner he stopped as someone collide on his chest, it happened in just a second, the man a little smaller than him, a orange lightning taking his breath away at the collision. He stood there with his gaze still down, watching his coat barely wet, raising his sight as the other person started to apologize, a man around his age entirely soggy, orange hair, prominent but delicate cheekbones, pinky lips, pale skin, and some hazel eyes staring at him; he was wearing just a t-shirt and some camouflage shorts. Did he even know they were on autumn, almost winter? He was covered from head to toes and he was freezing; he didn’t want to know how the man felt in that moment… well, maybe he wanted. He was a stranger but Jung Jaehyun wanted to. 

“I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to. Are you okay?” the man’s voice was soft and almost hypnotizing; he didn’t even realize that he was staring at him too obviously. He cleared his throat and denied his statements. 

“I’m okay but you should look at you and ask the same question. Are you okay? We are over six or seven degrees and you’re wearing… that” He didn’t even know why he was turning the matter, he just had to accept the apologies and leave, but something over that stranger was… strange in all the meanings of the word; and mystical too, like if he wanted to know everything about his life even if he had meet him just a second ago. 

“I’m okay, don’t worry. Sorry for stopping your way” the man smiled to him –he s m i l e d- and something inside Jaehyun started to burn. The unknown man looked like a cute and chubby bunny when he smiled, even if it was just for one second. Jaehyun by himself didn’t like to smile to strangers but his body was pretty weird that day and smiled back. “I have to go, sorry again” with a messy bow, the man started to move forward, walking beside him; the following words went out Jaehyun’s mouth without his own permission, surprising him on the way.  
“Do you want me to go with you?” The man stopped and turned around, rising his eyebrow at him “I mean, I know you’re wet enough but my umbrella is pretty big and I want you to take that as your payment for beating me that hard on your rush” The man looked at him in surprise, as if that was a big struggle and Jaehyun started to regret that decision.

“Okay” the man said and smiled again, surprising him; he felt like he was being too obvious on his actions that day. Jaehyun wanted to tell him to stop but that could be impolite and he was starting to like that smile, even if he didn’t want to admit that. “Just because I don’t want to owe nothing to you” he said on a clearly joking tone, approaching Jaehyun and standing beside him. Jaehyun watched all that in slow motion, he was going to take a stranger to some strange place and he didn’t even know his name, what the hell was he doing. Reaching the man’s hand, he felt him trembling down his fingers, knowing he took him suddenly but quickly he placed it on the umbrella’s handgrip, not wanting to make him uncomfortable, he didn’t know how much he had to walk with him. “I’m Doyoung by the way”. Jaehyun showed him a weak smile and started to walk in the direction the man known now as Doyoung was going earlier.

“Jaehyun”

 

* 　 　　　 . · 　 　　 　　 ✵ 　　　　　 　　 ⊹ 　

 

“So, where are we going?” Jaehyun asked with a doubt tone pretty clear in his voice, trying not to look the guy walking next to him. He had inquired “the man” was just one year older than him.

“I’m going to my house. I really don’t know why I’m showing a stranger my address, you could be a serial killer and I could be on my finals now” Doyoung said, letting go a weak laugh with that. Jaehyun felt he was nervous.

“I didn’t want to say this but I have a gun on my pocket, so you don’t have escape now” Jaehyun felt Doyoung’s muscles tense beside him, not avoiding the need to see his face, letting go a clearly laugh. “Relax, I’m joking, the only guns I have in my pocket are my pokys, and I don’t think I can do something with them. Also, I’m realizing this is maybe the first and last time I walk you home, I’m a stranger to you after all”. Jaehyun said not convinced at all; he wanted to see him again.

“That wasn’t funny, like, at all” He heard Doyoung sigh, pushing him to the side when he had to go to the left or to the right until he stopped a couple of streets near the library where he worked as a tutor, memorizing the direction even if he didn’t wanted to. “Is here” Doyoung said, releasing the umbrella’s handgrip. Jaehyun raised his gaze and watched a pretty tall building, about twelve or fifteen floors. The rain had stopped except for a little drizzle falling over them.

“I remember I wanted to live here a couple of months ago but by the time I called for the only free apartment on the flier, someone had taken it” Jaehyun said with a smile.

“I think I have to say sorry again” He heard Doyoung and immediately turned his gaze to him. “If you’re talking about that big apartment on the 8th floor”

“You were the one who destroyed my hopes of that freaking good looking apartment” Jaehyun said in a clearly faked sad tone, pouting at him. “At least is in good hands”

“Thank you for bringing me here, Jaehyun and sorry again” Doyoung said, with another quickly bow to him, looking somehow like Jaehyun was older than him. Doyoung started to walk a bit fast inside the building, Jaehyun looking at him disappear through the glass doors, not having any time to say goodbye in a proper way. He sighed, biting his lower lip, turning around but not wanting to leave. Maybe going out of the routine for one day was healthy for him, but now he was worried something, or someone would start to fly all over his mind, unable to leave him alone.

 

* 　 　　　 . · 　 　　 　　 ✵ 　　　　　 　　 ⊹ 　

 

The weeks came back on Jaehyun’s daily routine, but deeply wishing to crash Doyoung again. It had been around two weeks since he met Doyoung for the first, and last time as he thought he was wasting time waiting to met him again; maybe he was that one platonic love you met once in your lifetime and disappeared forever, but he knew he could change that visiting Doyoung, he know where he lived, he could do it but after whole nights thinking, he didn’t knew what he would told Doyoung when he discovered him at the other side of the door, he might thought he was creeping him around. Jaehyun didn’t want to think that was like a platonic love, or love at all, he just wanted to know more about the guy and having someone to talk to once in a while wasn’t that bad, he felt like an stranger and Doyoung had been his only “real” contact with somebody in a long time (excluding his students, they were just that after all). 

But that Friday he decided to finally make a move, he was class free that day and he needed fresh air, even if it was raining like a flood. He liked to carry his umbrella everywhere, even on summer; he hated the sun, maybe that was the reason his skin was that pale, but he didn’t seem to care about it. After changing his clothes, he went outside his apartment, it was a couple of streets near Doyoung’s, and that was a point in favor, he wouldn’t wet his shoes that much. When he was turning around the corner, an orange lightning crashed on his chest. It kinda felt like a déjà vu. He blinked in expectation, and a familiar shiver traveled down his spine. He moved backwards and saw Doyoung, in a sleeveless t-shirt and shoes, even if they were almost on zero that day. He was soggy again but he didn’t seem to care.

Jaehyun was speechless. Why would that happen again? Doyoung was removing water drops from his eyes until he saw Jaehyun standing in front of him. He looked surprised as well, and Jaehyun could only laugh, kind of a weak laugh.  
“Am I gonna crash with you on every corner?” Jaehyun asked, arching his brow.

“It feels like it, I’m sorry again, I just, couldn’t see you” Doyoung said calm, kneading his own arm with his hand. Jaehyun raised his own hand and took Doyoung by the t-shirt, pulling him closer to avoid the pouring rain.

“Why are you always wearing that kind of clothes? You’re going to catch a cold” Jaehyun said, funny.

“It isn’t something I wanna talk about with the person I’ve met for the second time and crashing” Doyoung said, surprised again by their close distance, he looked nervous and almost in pain by the question.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be an obtrusive”. Something inside Jaehyun broke, he looked tears coming down Doyoung’s face, and he suddenly felt fear. “Please, don’t cry. I’m really sorry”.

“Its okay, don’t worry, but I need to go” Doyoung said and walked beside him without even look at him. Jaehyun could felt his heart walk behind Doyoung when he turned around and watched the boy walk in a slow peace to his apartment, not even caring to watch Jaehyun for the last time. 

 

* 　 　　　 . · 　 　　 　　 ✵ 　　　　　 　　 ⊹ 　

A couple of days later, Jaehyun walked down the street with a big coat he loved, with his beloved umbrella hanging over his shoulder as the rain never seemed to stop. That day they were almost on 0 degrees, the weather announcing the winter around the corner. He started to felt dizzy when he walked on the corner he first met Doyoung, not even knowing why he felt so nostalgic about it. Doyoung was right, they’ve only met twice, but something inside Jaehyun was screaming that they knew each other since long time ago, but he didn’t know how that was possible. He pressed hard the umbrella’s handgrip, trying to forget everything about him. He had seen Doyoung twice, for God’s sake, but he couldn’t forget him. Could that mean he had fallen in love at first sight? 

He walked to a cafeteria he started to visit since the last time he saw Doyoung. He liked, or well, he loved coffee, but when he started to take medication for a pretty bad throat infection last year, he hadn’t drunk a cup until that moment. He went there almost every day. When the characteristic door bell rang when he walked in, he could smell the strong coffee filling his nostrils, and he automatically smiled. He left his umbrella on the side of the door and walked to the counter, where the young seller smiled to him.

“Hey, nice to see you again” the boy said.

“You know I’m not gonna stop. I want the same as always” Jaehyun said, with little smile. 

“To the table three, I know that, please sit, your order will be ready in a couple of minutes”. Jaehyun paid for his order, sighing when the boy left the counter. He turned around, opening widely his eyes when he saw a familiar orange hair behind him. When Doyoung’s eyes found his, he felt like somehow, the universe was on his favor, but he almost felt like it was like a joke, maybe the young guy didn’t want to see him anymore. He was finally wearing something else than just a t-shirt and shorts, he had a warm coat over his shoulders and adequate clothes under this. 

“Hi, Jaehyun” Doyoung said softly, filling Jaehyun’s ears like a symphony.

“Hello, Doyoung”

“Can I talk to you?” Doyoung said in a tone Jaehyun concluded was nervousness.

“Come here”. Jaehyun leaded Doyoung to his habitual table, sitting comfortable on this when Doyoung started to move his fingers over the wood object. “Is something wrong?” Jaehyun asked, suddenly feeling nervous to hear Doyoung’s answer.

“I just wanted to apologize for the last day, but the question took me by surprise. I didn’t want to react like that it was just a self defense reflection or kind of an invisible wall that collapsed” Doyoung said, releasing a sigh, he looked more relaxed now. Somehow, the days that passed had been difficult for him too. “One more thing, I wanted to answer that question”.

“Doyoung you don’t have to, you were right, we are strangers, I was wrong asking you, is just that I didn’t know it was something personal”. Jaehyun said sincerely.

“But I want to, is not that you have much option, you know I don’t want to owe you nothing”.

“But you don’t owe me anything, Doyoung”.

“Just shut up and listen” Doyoung said with a smile and Jaehyun could say his heart stopped for a minute. But Doyoung stopped his words too when his order arrived to his table. “And I don’t want anything if you were going to ask me”.

“I wasn’t going to” Jaehyun said in a joking voice. Doyoung just laughed.

“Four years ago, I was hit by a car” Doyoung said when the waiter left, sighing again, Jaehyun looking at him in surprise. “I was in coma for over a year, and my parent’s felt like somehow, I wasn’t going to wake up again. But then that miraculous thing you watch in movies happened and I opened my eyes 15 months after the accident. But I couldn’t move, I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t talk, my lungs depended on a machine, I was petrified and condemned to a bed maybe for the rest of my life. At that moment I felt like living had not helped at all, I was going to tell my mom to say the doctors that I didn’t wanted to live like that, not on those conditions. I wanted them to disconnect all the machines and let me die there. But then, another miraculous thing happened and the doctors said it was a possibility that with treatment I was going to be able to move in weeks, months on the worst scenery. So, I started to move a little bit every day, talking a little bit every day but my nervous system was completely wrong, I didn’t felt pain, I didn’t felt the soft fabric on the sweater my mom bought me for Christmas, or the hot water burning my hand. When I was totally recovered or muscularly recovered at least and my voice returned, the doctors said they didn’t know what was wrong with me, and why my sensitivity had disappeared. So, I was able to do a lot of things but I was like a ghost, just walking around without feeling anything.” Doyoung said calmly but his voice was shaking. Jaehyun raised his hand and took Doyoung’s one on his fingers. Doyoung smiled at the contact, and Jaehyun surprised, almost hitting himself, forgetting the day they met and how Doyoung had tense when he took his hand like this. “I flied to the other corner of the world and moved by myself to that freaking good looking apartment a couple of months ago, I wanted to live alone, even if my parents were still worried about me. When autumn came, I saw the rain falling on my window. I wanted to get wet, I couldn’t felt anything, so I took the first thing I saw and I went to walk. As I knew, the water was falling down my body but I couldn’t felt it, I felt sick, and I thought that the solution was to get hit by a car again, but die this time. Over the next days I had the habit to walk every afternoon down the pouring rain, with a couple of shorts and a t-shirt, until I fell to the floor. One of those running men trying to hide from the rain pushed me to the floor and I fainted. When I woke up, I screamed, something was burning in my leg, and when I opened my eyes, an old lady was covering a graze. When she looked at me she said “Did I hurt you?” when I said yes, I almost fainted again. I could feel, my sensitivity was there again, something in my brain was wrong and returned with that drop.” Doyoung said, sighing again, looking at Jaehyun.

“And you said we were strangers”. Jaehyun said.

“What do you mean?” Doyoung looked at him in confusion.

“I… was there when the car hit you. I was wondering where I had seen you, but four years ago you had brown hair and you weren’t that slim, maybe that was the main reason I didn’t recognized you” Jaehyun said sincerely.

“You lived in L.A then?” 

“Yes, I lived there, but when I saw you there on the floor, and with a lot of blood coming from your body I felt kind of wrong. I couldn’t help you, even If I tried. That fact kind of traumatized me, and I leaved the city. I came here, trying to forget about it, about a life I could save, I thought you were dead when I held you in my arms trying to make you stay conscious but you were just absent, and when the ambulance leaved, I knew I couldn’t live there anymore”. Jaehyun said, not able to finish his cup of coffee for the big amount of information he just received.  
“You were that voice I heard in my whole freaking sleep then” Doyoung said.

“You heard my voice?” Jaehyun said, surprised for the third time that day.

“You were trying to make me conscious and were the last voice I heard that day, so, I knew it was you. I mean, I didn’t know it until today but I knew it was the last person that tried to help me”. Doyoung said, laughing softly. Jaehyun smiled then. “So, when we crashed under your umbrella, I was enjoying the rain for the first time in four years. The sensation was so vibrant and unreal, the cold, the water, your hand on mine, everything.” Doyoung sighed again.

“Would you let me protect you?” Jaehyun said firmly, looking at Doyoung. 

“Excuse me?” Doyoung said, raising his brows in surprise.

“I couldn’t protect you that day, but I want to do it for the rest of my life. Is that wrong?” Jaehyun said, looking at him. Doyoung looked at him completely blank, but after eternal minutes, he smiled and nodded. “Then, let’s start now, I’m gonna take you to your apartment, but you’re going to make me stay this time”. 

“I don’t want you to leave, then” Doyoung said, standing from the table. Jaehyun imitated him, and both walked to the door, Jaehyun grabbing his umbrella until they were outside. He opened it, taking Doyoung’s hand with his and placed it on the handgrip, both of them smiling to their first memory together. 

And their story had just started. 

Under an umbrella.

**Author's Note:**

> This is it.
> 
> I wanted to to this like a whole fanfic, around nine or ten chapters but I don't know if that would affect the main point of the shot, so. I want you to judge the option and tell me if it's a good idea or if I'm nuts and just have to leave it like a shot.
> 
> Thank you for reading. ♥


End file.
